CEO says The Fan ran ratings to zero

Catching up to news from last week, when I took Amtrak to see the Reds in Wrigley…

Radio One CEO Alfred Liggins told a conference call last week that “we ran the ratings to zero doing sports” in Cincinnati on WCFN-FM (The Fan 100.3), according to the Tom Taylor Now newsletter. He blames the lack of a major play-by-play franchise for the deadly low ratings. (The Fan carried Miami University basketball games and some Cyclones games).

“There just wasn’t any appetite for a station that didn’t have play-by-play,” and he wasn’t willing to wait it out, Taylor wrote.

Three weeks, ago, Radio One fired all “The Fan” air talent and switched to “Old School” R&B oldies. It had dropped R&B oldies the “MOJO” branding (WMOJ-FM) late last year to switch to the CBS Sports Radio Network as “The Fan” in January. Taylor wrote: “They’re back to doing an old-school R&B oldies format on 100.3, but Cincinnati market revenue fell 25% in second quarter. Liggins didn’t mention it, but the August 6 NOW Newsletter told you about a lawsuit filed by former Mojo jock Pat Barry (Barry Tingley), related to the format flip.”

Here’s a link to comments by former ”Fan” hosts Tom Gamble and Richard Skinner on what went wrong, and a link to my blog about Pat Barry’s lawsuit. We can chat more about the demise of “The Fan” during my chat Tuesday.

Read more at Cincinnati.com where this story was originally published.